Father’s sexual assault conviction quashed by Court of Appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal quashed a father’s conviction for sexually assaulting his daughter, finding that the jury needed more help assessing whether he was awake at the time of the alleged touching. The proceedings were reported on 18 May 2022.

The man had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting his daughter on an occasion between 1 January and 30 April 2017 at their Dublin home. Following a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in May 2021, a jury convicted him by a majority of 10 to two. He was sentenced to three years and four months’ imprisonment, with the final four months suspended on terms.

The defence denied that an assault took place and argued alternatively that, if the alleged touching occurred, the man was asleep. The prosecution submitted that evidence of a conversation immediately afterwards supported a finding that he was awake. At an appeal hearing on 13 January 2022, defence counsel Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC said the complainant had said under cross-examination that the conversation occurred the next morning.

Delivering the appeal judgment, Mr Justice George Birmingham held that the jury required additional assistance with the evidence about whether the man was awake or asleep. The court found the verdict unsafe and quashed the conviction. It rejected the other grounds of challenge, including the complaint about trial judge Elma Sheahan’s treatment of corroboration.